The Kerry campaign has decided not to call for a recount in Ohio. I don't understand the reasoning behind this. There are plenty of indicators that the voting process in Ohio was seriously flawed. Investigative reporter Greg Palast believes that if all the Ohio votes are counted, Kerry would win Ohio. [LINK]
If there's even a remote chance that a recount in Ohio would tip the state in favor of Kerry, shouldn't one be done? The stakes in this election are too high to let the votes go uncounted. Even if a recount wouldn't change the electoral votes, it could still shine a light on the many unethical practices and dirty tricks played in Ohio to keep people from voting.
I believe someone should call for a recount in Ohio right away. Here's why:
- Most counties in Ohio still use punch-card ballots, which are notoriously prone to miscounting by the machines. In Ohio punch-card ballots are used in mostly Democratic counties. By some estimates the "spoilage" of these ballots could be as high as 2-3% of the total, or up to 165,000 ballots uncounted.
- There are still 155,000 provisional ballots to be counted, and an unknown number of absentee ballots. Most likely, counting these will reduce Bush's lead in the state.
- Republican vote challengers were granted access to polling places in predominantly Democratic precincts in order to prevent voters from casting ballots. The two judges whose ruling allowed this are long-time Republicans.
- Many counties, especially heavily Democratic ones, were plagued by election day problems that forced people to wait in line for many hours. Not enough voting machines were provided in many heavily-Democratic areas. Many voters turned away from the polls: [LINK]
The long lines kept people like 18-year-old Dwight Dehart away. After working eight hours as a welder for a manufacturing company, Dehart drove to his Columbus area polling place to find people who had waited in line for more than three hours.
"I was all for voting, but the lines were too long. I wasn't going to mess with it," Dehart said. "If there were more machines and people got in there and got out, it would have been better."
Of course the press says it's the unpredictable increase in voter turnout that caused the problems. But the increase in turnout wasn't all that spectacular in Ohio. 64% of Ohioans voted for President in 2000, and 70% voted in 2004. Overall there was a 16% increase in the total number of votes cast. I could see lots of problems if you had a 50% increase or even a 30% increase, but the system must be really badly designed if a 16% increase causes things to come to a grinding halt. Not surprisingly the biggest delays were seen in Democratic stronghold cities like Cleveland, and on college campuses. [LINK]
- Exit polls for Ohio showed Kerry ahead 52% to 48%. The current vote tally shows Bush 51%, Kerry 49%. The press is blaming this on the exit pollers. However until the 2000 election exit polls were deemed highly reliable. It's possible that a recount of the votes would bring the totals more in line with the exit poll amounts.
- The President of Ohio-based Diebold, Inc. which manufacturers electronic voting machines used in at least 2 counties in Ohio, famously wrote in a Republican fund-raising letter last year that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.''
Admittedly some of the factors above turned people, predominantly Democrats, away from the polls. They weren't allowed to vote, so a recount will not turn up new votes for them. But if there's even a tiny chance that a recount would switch the state to Kerry, giving him a win nationally, then I think one should be done. Even if the final result doesn't favor Kerry, a recount would shed more light on the many irregularities forced upon the citizens of Ohio this year, making it less likely for these things to occur in the future.
There were similar irregularities in Florida this year, but Florida law says that unless the margin of victory is less than one half of one percent, only the Secretary of State can request a recount.
Ohio's law is much more open. Any candidate or <em>any group of five voters<em> can apply for a recount, if it's done within "five days after the results were declared." [LINK] (Note: from this link it seems like a group of five voters can only request a recount for a "question or issue", but in a CNN interview with Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell on election night, he implied that any five voters could request a recount of the Presidential election too.)
In other words, even if Kerry won't apply for a recount, a civic-minded group of Ohio voters could do so!
Is there a group of concerned voters in Ohio willing to take this on? Is there an advocacy group willing to fund the challenge? I hope so. It might have to be done very quickly. It's unclear to me whether the date the "results were declared" would be defined as Tuesday, November 3rd (the date the first numbers were posted by the Ohio Secretary of State) or the future date when all the provisional and absentee vote counts are added to the total.
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